Steve Bruce doubts many Premier League teams could cope with Sunderland’s injury problems, but he did not want to make any excuses for the comprehensive defeat to Fulham.
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Mark Hughes’ visitors earned just a second away win of the season courtesy of Gael Kakuta’s first goal in English football and a double from Simon Davies at the Stadium of Light.
Despite creating a number of chances, Sunderland struggled all afternoon as the absence of injured strikers Asamoah Gyan, Danny Welbeck and Fraizer Campbell was sorely felt.
Winger Stephane Sessegnon was deployed from the start against Fulham as an emergency forward before Bruce was forced to push defender Nedum Onuoha into attack in the second half.
And the beleaguered Sunderland boss told Sky Sports: “Everybody who knows what has happened to Sunderland knows the problems we have had. They have been horrific and today it was shown.
Resilience
“I don’t think there are many Premier League teams without a striker, and even the young ones we had in the reserves and the youth team got injured in midweek so it compounded the problem.”
But Bruce, who is still without centre-back Titus Bramble due to a knee injury, while John Mensah was only fit enough for the bench, knew that poor defending was responsible for a ninth defeat in 11 matches.
He said: “The reason why our season got off to a wonderful start is that for six months there was a resilience and we didn’t give much away.
“But our defending today with the change in personnel was not good enough at this level and we got punished.
“When you give away bad goals like that, you expect frustrating days like today.”
Original post:
Bruce frustrated at defending